Blowers for lawn and garden use which are portable and hand-held by an operator when in use are well known and are made by a number of different companies. Blowers can be powered by electric motors as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,275 or by small spark ignition internal combustion engines as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,146. These two patents describe blowers which can be converted between a blower mode for blowing leaves or the like and a vacuum mode where debris is collected via a vacuum tube and contained within an operator carried bag. The problems associated with blower/vacuums, particularly those powered by internal combustion engines are that the overall height of the apparatus becomes cumbersome and the engine cooling air and/or the engine exhaust is frequently directed into the operator in at least one of the two modes of operation.
The problems sought to be remedied by the present invention is to provide a compact blower vacuum unit which directs engine exhaust and engine cooling air comfortably away from the operator in both the vacuum and blower operation mode.